Ecuador threatens to tap Amazon oil fields

Ecuador will begin operating three oil fields in a pristine Amazon preserve unless the international community contributes $US100 million ($93.77 million) by December, President Rafael Correa has announced.

Ecuador's government pledged in 2007 to leave the oil fields under the Yasuni biosphere reserve untapped for a decade if rich countries would contribute $US3.6 billion ($3.38 billion), which it estimated was half of what the country could earn from the oil.

The government wanted to get $US100 million ($93.77 million) for 2011, but officials have said only about $US37 million ($34.7 million) has been donated by Chile, Spain, Belgium and Italy.

"Unfortunately we are not getting the response we expected," Correa said in his Saturday broadcast program, Dialogue with the President.

Correa warned that Ecuador will have to drop its Yasuni initiative if the full $US100 million is not in hand before year's end.

The fields in the Yasuni National Park are estimated to hold 846 million barrels of crude, or 20 per cent of Ecuador's reserves, and Correa said money from the oil is needed to finance the country's economic development.

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He said if Ecuador goes ahead with oil exploitation in Yasuni, the work will be done "with all care" using high technology to minimise damage to the environment.

UNESCO declared Yasuni National Park a world biosphere reserve in 1989.

Lying about 350km southeast of Quito, the 982,000-hectare preserve is home to more than 2000 species of trees and shrubs, nearly 800 types of birds, amphibians and reptiles and more than 160,000 species of bees and insects.

In addition, it is home to the Huarani, indigenous hunter-gatherers who are threatened by the encroachment of loggers and other settlers.